


Easy

by MsPolaPotter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25526695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsPolaPotter/pseuds/MsPolaPotter
Summary: Hermione has been avoiding the Wizarding World for nearly a year now, with Harry her remaining thread. Following news of their friends settling down, they explore whether or not they should, too.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Easy

Hermione nearly dropped her forkful of pasta as everyone around her erupted in applause all of a sudden. It didn’t take her a long time to identify the culprit: a couple had just gotten engaged a few tables away. She put her fork down and reluctantly joined the applause. Harry on the other hand, was slapping his palms together a little too hard for Hermione’s liking. He even offered a congratulatory whoop.

“Brilliant,” he muttered to himself. “That’s ice cream on you after dinner, yeah?”

“I hate you,” Hermione chuckled. Earlier that evening, the two of them had made a bet on whether or not the couple ahead of them would be engaged by the end of the night. “It’s unfair that you’re using your people reading skills to get free dessert, you know?”

“I know,” he said triumphantly. The rest of dinner was uneventful.

On the second Friday of each month for almost a year now, Harry would arrive at the building of Hermione’s flat. He always arrived at her doorstep and rang the doorbell at precisely 8 P.M. with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. She would gratefully receive the bouquet, invite him in, place the bouquet in a vase which she had prepared five minutes prior. She would then grab her coat, and the pair would leave Crookshanks behind with a belly full of fish.

“Where to?” Hermione asked, linking arms with him once they’d retrieved their coats. Harry led the pair to a gelato place at the corner of the street. Ever the gentleman, he opened the door for her, asked for her card, and ordered for the both of them.

“How was your week?” He set down three cups with three different flavors and slid in the booth next to her.

“Grueling,” Hermione breathed, spooning some pistachio into her mouth. “Big spender, are we?”

“What can I say, I’m a generous date.”

Usually Hermione wouldn’t be caught off guard by that word, but tonight it hit a bit different. Hermione hadn’t had a good date since…well, tonight.

“So, you said this week was grueling,” Harry started. “Care to elaborate?”

Hermione sighed. “Oh, the usual. A client’s up in arms because of a misunderstanding about the final copy that they wanted. They’re threatening to cancel the account, as if they could at this point. The director keeps taking on more work than we could do, which means each of us is doing way more than we’re being paid to do.”

“’Mione, it’s been more than six months,” Harry said. “You said you weren’t planning on staying in this job for too long. You said it was going to kill you and it’s really starting to.”

“I have to stick it out for a little while more,” Hermione shrugged, taking a spoonful of strawberry shortcake.

“Have you at least started working on your law school applications?” he asked.

Hermione scooped more strawberry shortcake.

“Your visa?”

She even took some of the mint chocolate chip. “Honestly, Harry I don’t understand your fascination for ice cream that tastes more like toothpaste than dessert.”

“ _Hermione_.”

“I’ll do it, I promise,” she said, going back to pistachio.

Eventually, Harry let it go. Hermione soon took out her phone to respond to some emails about work. Harry soon took out a pen and notebook and started writing down. What he was writing, Hermione wasn't sure. He randomly took her hand and started drawing figures on her palm, his brow furrowed deep in thought.

“How about you? How was your week?”

“Well,” he began, setting his pen down, “the spells I’ve put outside of my house seem to be holding up. I haven’t seen any photographers from the Daily Prophet in three days.”

“That’s good.”

“Mrs. Weasley still calls every night and asks about you,” he said. “I think she worries about you.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because we all do.”

“I’m fine.”

They continued to eat in silence, but only for a short while.

"Shacklebolt reached out to me last night. Asked me when you were coming back."

"Back where?"

"The Wizarding World, I assume.” He shrugged. "It's not like we could get away so easily from all of it, ‘Mione. They're going to look for us, all the time. Until we do come back. And stay for good."

"Unless someone else decides to pull a Lord Voldemort and they have to get a new Chosen One," she muttered.

Harry's face turned to stone. "That's not funny, Hermione."

"I wasn't trying to be funny, Harry," she replied. "We already gave them six years of our lives. Are we not allowed to build our own lives now?"

Harry didn't say anything. "I've been...trying to keep them at bay for a while now. Giving them vague answers about when you’ll come back."

“I’m not yet ready,” she admitted. “And I don’t know how long it will take me to be ready to go back. Maybe before I go to university. Maybe when I’m done. Maybe never. You don’t have to cover for me, you know.”

“If you were so keen on leaving, then why haven’t you had any progress with your applications?” Harry asked.

“Okay, maybe I feel a little guilty about staying away,” she conceded. “But I still don’t know if or when I’ll be ready to go back.”

The three of them thought they would be given a break after they managed to defeat the darkest wizard of all time, as well as catch and put on trial all of his supporters. Apparently, it still wasn’t enough. They wanted them to work at the Ministry, too. Only Harry stayed. Sometimes, she wonders whether she was being selfish, leaving Harry alone after all those years they’d spent working together.

But that was just it. Most of their teen years were taken away by a dark lord that threatened the world and a prophecy that chose Harry as the only person who could defeat him. The time they could have spent figuring out what they wanted to do and who they wanted to be was instead spent figuring out how to save the world. It was almost as if their lives had been decided for them. Hermione refused that. So, she declined the offer, insisting on wanting to pursue a degree in a Muggle university.

“Sometimes I wish I could stay away, too.”

"You could," Hermione replied. "Come with me."

"It's not that easy for me."

Harry returned to whatever he was writing. But Hermione recognized the opportunity.

“I’m serious though,” Hermione pushed. “We could do it. You and me. In Boston. Away from all this.”

Harry stopped whatever he was writing and look at Hermione to continue. Except she didn’t. He wasn’t stupid. Hermione knew how he would take her words. And to be honest, maybe it was time they talked about it. Luna and Ron were in the middle of planning their wedding. Moreover, just the night before, Ginny had just gotten engaged to Draco Malfoy (long story). Neville and Hannah were expecting. They were the last among their friends to settle down. They’d basically been dating all this time.

“I suppose it makes sense,” Harry offered, as if he were reading what was going on in Hermione’s mind.

“We could both go to university,” she continued. “Have our own lives for once. You can figure out what you really want to do with your life.”

She knew she was making a very tempting offer. The fact that Hermione knew Harry only accepted the Auror position at the Ministry out of duty was a testament to how much she truly knew him. But she also knew Harry well enough to know that he wouldn’t let go like that, not when so many people have such expectations of him.

“Do you love me?”

Well, she wasn’t ready for _that_ question.

“Absolutely,” she replied without hesitation. When Harry didn’t say “Great! I love you too” almost as immediately, Hermione hoped she hadn’t laid her cards so quickly. But it was true, she did love Harry. She wouldn’t propose that he move across the pond with her if she didn’t.

“No, Hermione,” Harry scooted a little to face her properly. “Are you in love with me?”

She looked at him. This time, really looked at him. Was this a face she would want to wake up next to every night? Absolutely. They’ve known each other since they were basically children. Harry made her feel safe. Harry made her feel loved.

But was that the same as being in love?

“I know you’re not in the best place in that area, ‘Mione,” Harry said, squeezing her hand gently. “And I know that you love me. But I don’t think I love you that way. I don’t think you love me that way, too.”

“Why not?” Hermione protested. “What’s this, then? What are we doing? Why are we going out all the time? You half-live with me at this point.”

“Do you mean to tell me, that you’ve been feeling romantic feelings for me all this time, and you didn’t tell me for almost a year?” Harry challenged.

“No,” she grumbled.

“You’re not the only one who’s lonely, ‘Mione,” Harry admitted. “And as tempting as it is to date my favorite girl in the world, I am sadly not in love with her. And she’s not in love with me, too.”

Hermione groaned into her hands. “That would have been so much easier.”

“I know.” He kissed the top of her head. “On the plus side, we’re pretty sure about where we are in each other’s lives, and that’s great too.”

She snuggled closer to him, wondering if or when she’d find this feeling with anyone else in the world. “The offer still stands.”

“Marriage or—?”

“Coming with me to Boston, arse,” Hermione said. “But we could still fall in love, you never know. I hear Boston is quite the romantic city.”

“I’ll think about it,” he promised. “Now, finish your ice cream. I have to take you home.”

The two of them strolled the long way around back to Hermione’s flat, holding each other’s hand. Maybe she will find it. Most likely not. But that didn’t matter to her now. No matter what happens, she’d always have Harry.

He left her with a kiss on the cheek and a wave goodbye.


End file.
